The Earth Defence Force and the Stargate
by Pyeknu
Summary: Quasi-side story to "Phoenix From The Ashes." Two months after the end of the mission to Yaminokuni, HMCS Haida and USS Arizona detect a strange energy emitting from NORAD HQ in Colorado. Includes characters from UY, Top Gun and Under Siege.
1. The Chappa'ai

_**The Earth Defence Force and the Stargate**_  
by Fred Herriot

Based on _Urusei Yatsura_, created by Takahashi Rumiko; _Ikkitōsen_, created by Shiozaki Yūji; and _Stargate SG-1_, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner.

Including characters/situations from ___Koihime Musō_, created by BaseSon;_ Top Gun_, created by Ehud Yonay, Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr.; and _Under Siege_, created by J.F. Lawton and Andrew Davis.

This is a sequel to _Phoenix From the Ashes_. This story also contains characters and situations from the fanfic series _Urusei Yatsura - The Senior Year_, created by Mike Smith and Fred Herriot.

* * *

_**WRITER'S PREFACE:** While I never mentioned anything about the Stargate system in _Phoenix From The Ashes_, in my _Restart Deluge - The Emperor's Army_ storyline at the Anime Addventure (which did inspire much of the events in the main story), I did include the _Stargate SG-1_ characters and their situation vis-à-vis the Goa'uld in some of the episodes. This side story was directly inspired by that older storyline. This side story begins on the first Friday in September of 2010, which puts it eight weeks after the return of the Task Force to Yaminokuni as shown in Part 48 of the main story._

_I decided to separate this story from _Phoenix From The Ashes_ due to the heavy influence of the _Stargate _universe in this storyline._

_As always, writer's notes will appear at the end of the story text.  
_

* * *

H.M.C.S. _Haida_, in geo-synchronous orbit over Welland, Ontario . . .

"So they're settling in well?"

"As well as could be expected for semi-trained - yet _incredibly_ eager! - reservists coming in from all over the country to help augment the ship's company now that all the plank owners are off doing their BMQ and BMOQ over in sunny Saint-Jean," Chief Petty Officer 1st Class Jacques Beaulieu stated as he sat down in one of the visitor's chairs in the captain's personal office, located on the senior officers' quarters level in the forward superstructure of the Canadian starship; atop his own commanding officer, the wing commander of 21 Space Wing and the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion of the Regiment of Canadian Guards would have quarters at this level, serviced by a special pantry section of the ship's team of wardroom stewards.

"All the reserve division COs pass on their apologies for not being able to cram in more standard training before they got called up here, by the way," Commander David Choquette, _Haida_'s executive officer - she had not sailed with such on the mission to Yaminokuni, which had stunned the former commandant of the Canadian Forces Fleet School in Halifax - then added. "But given how swelled up they are with new recruits that they need to process and all that - now that Parliament's pretty much given its nod to allowing manning ceilings to be totally taken off - they'll be more than busy running BMQs, BMOQs and naval environmental training courses non-stop to get them ready enough to face trades training. Once THAT happens, folks in Québec City and elsewhere are going to be swamped. Other facilities across the country won't escape it either." A shake of the head. "This must have been what the start of World War Two was like."

"Well, fortunately, Avalonian recruits do have a certain advantage Terran recruits don't possess," the commanding officer of the Dominion's first true starship then mused. "Sometimes, their telepathy and empathy really intimidate me, but right now, it's saving millions of man-hours and training dollars in getting people prepped to do their jobs." At this, Captain (Navy) Brian Gamblin chuckled. "Thank God they don't want to take it _all_ away from us. This IS our solar system after all; we've got the inherent right to defend it from all comers. They're just helping us along."

"A lot different from all the sci-fi shows about people infiltrating us and invading us," Beaulieu stated. "Like _V_, _Battlestar Galactica_ and the rest . . . "

"It does remind me of one show, though," Choquette mused.

"What's that, Dave?" Gamblin asked.

"_Alien Nation_. Made by the same man who created the original _V_ series back in the 1980s. Story of alien refugees who fled to Earth after being enslaved by another race." The executive officer then laughed. "Damn! It's _**exactly**_ like that!"

"Were they able to interbreed with us, sir?" the coxswain asked.

Choquette blinked, and then he shook his head. "Can't remember."

"Well, in this case, we CAN and ARE starting to intermingle with the alien refugees now living with us. In fact, they're encouraging it since it'll give the human race as a whole a massive boost evolutionally to something most experts say we wouldn't have reached for thousands of years naturally," Gamblin stated before sipping his coffee; it was early in the forenoon watch and it was a quiet Friday for the newest ship in the Canadian Navy as she worked up to full operational status, which would probably be achieved in two years' time. Of course, the neighbouring alien races would have to be party to that plan. So far, the potential hostile races - the Urusians and the Ipraedies chief amongst them, with the Niphentaxians a distant third - had been very nice and quiet in the wake of the Avalonian liberation. No doubt, the potential combined threat of the Noukiites, the Seifukusu Dominion AND the Avalonians with all their advanced technology were keeping the more ambitious planners in Onishuto and Ipraedos City from getting _too_ ambitious. And given the amount of destruction the liberation had caused the Niphentaxians - along with the final downfall of the "One True Faith" - any hostile response from Lumukyō (which, rumour had it, might go back to its former name "New Hollywood" soon) was next to impossible. "Amazing that even the most conservative groups on the planet have been welcoming to the Avalonians."

"Sir, it's easy," Beaulieu stated. "The Avalonians are freakin' _designer clones_! You can make them with any skin colour, program them to speak any language and they could - within reason - fit it anywhere on the planet. Heck, groups of them went out to find all the critically-threatened language and social groups like the Ainu in Japan almost within a week of their coming here _en masse_! Of course people are going to want them around. They're the most unprejudiced people you'll ever meet and they WANT to do everything they can to help us better ourselves as a people."

"Well, they DO have their prejudices, Chief," Choquette reminded him.

"Aye, sir, that's true. But the prejudices are actually quite humane and can easily be accepted by most folks. Treating kids with decency and ensuring no child abuse. No one on the planet would complain about that." Beaulieu paused for a moment as he considered something else, and then he added, "But given that they're all _women_ - and _bisexual_ ones at that! - chances are there the religious fringe lunatics will sooner or later get up in arms and move to try to do something to hurt or cage them."

"True, but Avalonian civilian advisors are already helping police forces in the States hunt down whackos like that idiot who made that mess at Waco some years back, the one that provoked that McVeigh moron to blow up that building in Oklahoma City," Gamblin stated. "Atop that, given that Afghanistan and Pakistan were selected to be represented in the E.D.F. in the first round, the governments in Kābul and Islāmābād both know that if they're going to get people aboard the _Mirwais Khan Hotak_ and the _Muhammad Ali Jinnah_, they need to have stable societies or else the Director won't let them play with their new toys. The Ṭālibān and al-Qā'idah are probably learning that they may soon be sacrificed to the desires of their home nations' leaders not to be left out of the 'Great Space Race.' What they'll do as a result . . .?" A shrug.

The others nodded. A chime then echoed through the room. "Ops to Captain."

"Captain. Go ahead, Lieutenant."

"Sorry to bother you, sir, but we're picking up an odd reading that matches something in the Gamma File," Lieutenant (Navy) Michelle Anderson, who was the officer of the watch, called up from her position in the operations room. "It's a Stargate."

Silence.

"A Stargate? On EARTH?" Gamblin demanded.

"Affirmative, sir! And it's in Cheyenne Mountain!"

More silence.

"Have you signalled _Arizona_?"

"Affirmative, sir! Captain Kazanski's having kittens over there! The signal's gone to _Yamato_ as well; automatically relayed to the Director!"

A moan. "Joy!" Gamblin snarled as he tapped controls. "Captain to Security."

"Security, Tremblay."

"Doug, I need every MP and infantryman you can muster on the ship with Lawgivers and Peacemakers in the materialiser rooms! And I want it NOW!"

"Yes, sir!"

* * *

2568 kilometres west of Welland, under a mountain near Colorado Springs . . .

"I tell you, the thing is _moving_!"

Before her co-workers from the 721st Security Forces Squadron could react to her words, Senior Airman Carol Weterings was on her feet and walking away from the poker table towards the grate ramp leading up to the tarp-covered circular object at least fifteen feet in diameter at one end of the storage room located deep within the NORAD command bunker complex, though said bunker room was technically not part of either the bi-national American/Canadian aerospace defence network or the recently-formed United States Northern Command. As she moved up the ramp, the sudden surge of wind within the chamber began to increase as the tables began to rattle, causing her co-workers to all get up and look around before they moved to reach for their Beretta M-9s.

Suddenly, the very air became alive with a ringing noise as showers of energy appeared on both sides of the ramp leading to the now-exposed circular metal ring, which had triangular reddish lights set up at every forty degree point on the arc from the very top as the inner ring began to rapidly spin. Said showers then solidified into a dozen men and women in a mixture of Canadian Forces field CADPATs and naval combat dress, all armed with very futuristic rifle-like weapons that reminded the American service personnel of the Heckler & Koch G11 battle rifle system that had been developed in the latter part of the previous century. All of them had a crowned unit identifying patch at the bottom of their rank insignia marked **HAIDA**, save for the infantry personnel, all of whom wore either **CG** or **GC** under their rank insignia, their berets or camouflage boonie hats bearing the crowned ten-point star of the Canadian Guards. Leading them was a scowling man in CADPATs with army captain's rank and the thunderbird hat badge of the Canadian Forces Military Police on his red beret. On seeing him, Weterings straightened herself, saluting. "Captain!" she called out.

Douglas Tremblay looked over, and then returned the salute. "Airman. Sorry to drop in on you unexpectedly, but we've got us an incursion event happening now!"

"'Incursion event,' Captain?" one of the other USAF personnel from 721 SFS - and the current detail commander watching over the "thing" - Staff Sergeant Jason McAfee, asked as he came up to stand beside the Canadian, M4A1 carbine in hand.

Tremblay stared at him. "Weren't you briefed on the Stargate, Sergeant?"

"No, sir. Not a bit!"

"Oh, fuck!" the captain snarled, which made the American security personnel gape in shock on hearing the Canadian officer make such a ripe oath. "Okay, get your people behind a table. Don't fire unless you feel you have to; we've got the weapons to handle what's coming through right now! HAS A CHEVRON LOCKED ON THIS THING?"

"One just locked, Captain!" an infantryman to the left of the boarding ramp yelled out. "Can't tell where it's coming from, though!"

Tremblay spat out. "Alright, assume it's hostile! Heavy stun!"

"YESSIR!" everyone barked out.

Drawing out his own Lawgiver, Tremblay ordered, "Move back, Sergeant!"

"Yes, sir!" McAfee said as he doubled back to where his co-workers were, all crouched beside the poker table - which had been set on its side - and waited.

One of the two side doors then opened, revealing a scowling United States Marine Corps captain in BDUs. "Hey, Doug! What's the sitch?" Captain Michael Amos asked.

"One chevron's locked, don't know where it's coming from, Mike," Tremblay said as a section of Marines with Peacemaker rifles came in to back up the Canadian mixed military police and infantry team from _Haida_. "Wait! Second one . . .!"

"Chevron Two locked, Captain!" a sergeant from _Haida_ called out.

"Where's the control unit for this thing?" Amos demanded.

"We don't even know what it IS, Captain!" McAfee called out.

The Marine captain looked over, and then blinked. "You weren't BRIEFED on this thing?" he demanded as another hard _clang!_ indicated the third chevron had just locked in place. "Goddamn it! Who's in charge of this blasted abortion, anyway?"

"Is your CO talking to the admiral about this?" Tremblay asked.

"Yeah, he is!"

The two captains gazed into each other's eyes, and then Amos grimaced, making his already dark skin turn a very nasty shade of black. "Consider it hostile until proven otherwise, Captain Tremblay?" he asked his counterpart from _Haida_.

"That's my call, Captain Amos," the Canadian officer said, nodding.

Both men then turned as the fourth chevron locked into place. "Listen up, Thunderbirds!" Tremblay barked out. "Like I just said: We have a hostile incursion event! Shoot the instant anyone walks through the event horizon! Heavy stun!"

"Ditto with you, Marines!" Amos barked. "Shoot 'em as they come through!"

"YESSIR!" "AYE-AYE, SIR!" came from two dozen mouths as the fifth chevron clacked into place, causing the wind in the chamber to pick up considerably.

Silence then fell as two more chevrons - the last being the one at the very top of the ring - clicked into place. A second later, a loud _WHOOSH!_ filled the room as a wall composed of a silvery water-like substance filled the space in the middle of the ring, sending out a geyser that nearly reached all the way to where Tremblay and Amos were standing. Both captains ducked slightly as the geyser faded back into the wall now formed in the middle of the aperture, and then silence fell . . .

_KLANG!_

Everyone tensed on seeing a silver ball somewhat smaller than the average basketball drop out of the portal to land on the top of the ramp. A second later, a projection wave of energy reached out to scan the room, specifically focusing on five people. One of them was Senior Airman Carol Weterings. One was one of the Marines that had just come in from _Arizona_, Lance Corporal Nellie Saunderhausen. The other three were Canadians, two military police personnel - Master Seaman Lynn Prichard and Corporal Wendy Cavendish - and one infantry soldier, Guardsman Blanche Lachelle.

"It's interested in women," Amos whispered.

"Won't be taking ours!" Tremblay said as he levelled his Lawgiver and fired.

The bolt of energy shattered the device in one blast of energy. "Um, Captains, what the hell's goin' on here?" Staff Sergeant McAfee demanded.

"You'll be told in a minute, Sergeant," Amos said . . .

. . . as someone then stepped out of the shimmering wall.

He didn't get the chance to realise he was waltzing directly into a free-fire zone; the instant he was in the clear, two dozen Peacemakers opened up with a storm of energy that slammed him from everywhere in the space holding the Chappa'ai in place. As the armoured man dropped off the boarding ramp to crash into the floor by two of the Canadians from _Haida_, more armoured figures came through. They themselves were instantly shot at, their bodies overwhelmed by the torrents of neural disruptive power they were certainly not expecting on coming to the Tau'ri homeworld. Within a minute, six more armoured figures had been savagely knocked down by the powerful Zephyrite battle rifles. Just as the reception party was about to relax, an eighth figure - this one in solid gold armour - then emerged. Two bolts of energy slammed into his body thanks to Lawgiver shots from both Douglas Tremblay and Michael Amos. As he dropped face-first onto the boarding ramp, the Marine nodded in approval. "Nice shot."

"Thanks. I keep in practice," the military police officer said, smirking.

"Scan them all!" Gunnery Sergeant Steven Black then barked out. "Tricorders!"

"Scanning now, Gunny!" a Marine corporal said as he tapped controls on his portable device, and then he blinked as the readings came out. "Holy shit . . . "

"What is it?" Tremblay asked.

"They're symbiotics, Captain! Just like it says in the Gamma File!"

A sigh. "Wonderful!" Amos growled. "Your brig or ours?"

Tremblay smirked. "Do all of them have pouches in their bodies, Corporal?"

The corporal blinked, and then tapped controls on his machine. As he was doing that, the other visitors from the Earth Defence Force were moving to seize the rod-like weapons that had been brought by the aliens. "All save our boy in gold, sir."

"That's a Goa'uld, then," Amos concluded. "Alright, Marines, get them all up to _Arizona_ save for the boy in gold. Strip them of everything, including clothing. _Leave_ the snakes in their pouches alone; they can't survive without them. Individual cells!"

"AYE-AYE, CAPTAIN!" the people under his command barked.

"What about the other one, Captain?" Warrant Officer Don Glas, the division petty officer for _Haida_'s on-board military police group, then asked.

"Same orders Captain Amos gave his men, but be VERY cautious, Don!" Tremblay said. "His symbiont is to be considered hotter than Chernobyl! Everyone is to wear HAZMAT suits when they're stripping this idiot of everything before tossing him into a cell. And if you see something come out of him, feel free to blast it into atoms!"

A smirk. "Yes, sir!"

* * *

H.M.C.S. _Haida_, an hour later . . .

"Permission to come aboard, Captain?"

"Permission granted, General. If we knew someone of your rank was coming aboard, I would have had a proper side party here for you."

The balding major general in the blue duty uniform of the United States Air Force smiled as he took Brian Gamblin's hand in his own. "There's no need for that anyway, son," George Hammond then said. "This was my last posting before I was to finally retire. To have THIS happen . . .!" He then sighed, shaking his head. "I like to thank you personally for sending your boys down there to stop these . . . "

"Goa'uld and Jaffa," Gamblin said as he guided Hammond out of the materialiser room into the hallway, where a turbolift station was located. Once inside, the captain called out, "Regulating Flats." As the machine then shifted aft towards the central part of the Canadian starship's hull, he gazed on the visiting officer. "According to what we overheard the White House sent to _Arizona_, you bumped into these people about the same time the First Tag Race was happening. Why didn't you call the MIBs?"

"Well, Project: Giza has been ongoing ever since Professor Langford found the damned thing in the desert of Egypt back in 1928," Hammond stated. "It was originally run by Army Intelligence until the Air Force was founded in '47, then switched to our control. We've been in that line of mentality ever since we first found it!" A sigh. "After the mission to Abydos, it was decided to shut it all down. We weren't expecting more of these aliens to suddenly show up and try to attack Earth." He then gazed on the Canadian officer. "How'd you people learn about these things?"

"Partially from Mister Ki and Miss Hakaru; the Sagussans - at least the Fourth Republic - knew of the Stargates and what they could do. Partially from the Director herself; she's friends with a Noukiite free warrior who's had run-ins with the Goa'uld and the Jaffa before," Gamblin stated. "As a matter of fact, once the Lady K'ekhech gets here to personally identify our guest, we might have a reunion of sorts."

The turbo car then stopped, the doors opening into the corridor where the ship's security force was headquartered, along with the coxswain as it was traditional in the Canadian Navy for the senior non-commissioned officer of any ship to also be in charge of all disciplinary matters. Awaiting them was Chief Petty Officer 1st Class Beaulieu. "Captain. General. You're just in time. The Director's here."

"Oh, wonderful!" Gamblin muttered as he rolled his eyes. "Where is she?"

"**_BOW TO YOUR GOD!_**"

Hearing that, both officers exchanged a look. "By the sounds of it, the Director is already starting the interrogation," Gamblin muttered. "This way, sir."

Both walked down to the forward end of the compartment, where _Haida_'s two dozen brig cells were located. One of them was being watched by two scowling military policemen with Peacemaker rifles at the ready as they gazed inside. Both of them tensed on seeing their commanding officer approach with an American air force two-star, and then they relaxed as Gamblin waved them at ease. Also standing there was Douglas Tremblay. "So how is our guest from another world, Doug?" Gamblin asked as he gazed on the military police division officer, crossing his hands behind his back.

"Fit to be tied, sir," Tremblay stated with a smirk. "Doesn't like the accommodations and he's been cryin' like a baby because we took his toys away."

"Well, isn't that too bad?" Gamblin said.

"**_BOW TO ME! I COMMAND IT!_**"

"No."

That deceptively quiet voice made George Hammond look to see a calm-looking Moroboshi Hiromi seated in the lone chair at one end of the brig space. Save for a simple bed and a stall area for a wash basin and a toilet, the room was totally bare. The reborn emperor wasn't alone in the brig, though; also present was a scowling dark-skinned, slender yet muscular man looking to be in his early thirties at the most, now dressed in a plain martial arts gi-like uniform with a simple belt wrapped around his waist. He was on his feet glaring wrathfully at the slender woman sitting there, looking at him as if he was some annoying cockroach that was disturbing her dinner.

"**_I AM YOUR GOD!_**" the man thundered.

"You're a pretender to the word. Almost all your kind are that way." Hiromi then smirked. "Save for the smarter ones who declared themselves 'Tok'ra.'"

He jolted as if she had stabbed him with a live wire. "You will be made to bow to me, woman!" he snarled, his eyes glowing with energy. "Your impertinence will not be forgiven! You will be used as a host for my mate . . .!"

"Pity that you put a symbiont into me, the regenerative enzymes in my body would kill it in minutes," she countered. "The blessings of having ra'naquadah in my blood."

He froze, his eyes wide as saucers as he stared at her. "Impossible . . . "

"What makes you say that?" she asked.

"You cannot be Ra'kalach!" he snarled. "They died out ten thousand years ago!"

"Oh, really?" she asked. "Then explain the Lady K'ekhech."

A fearful sucked-in breath of air made him stagger. "How do you know her?"

"She's a friend of the family," she explained. "She aided my brother in helping my sisters and I be free of his mind several months ago. All using bioroid bodies born of the DNA of the Ra'kalach themselves. Strange that you nor your brother and sister System Lords never heard of Project: Avalon. I find it disappointing. A race as experienced and as knowledgeable as the Goa'uld being _tricked_ by a people like the Niphentaxians?" She then smirked. "Oh, forgot. You would call them 'Na'kalach.'"

A snort and laugh. "THEM? Who gave those mindless fools the right to touch that created by the Knowledge Bringers?" he demanded.

"Sadly, luck was against the Avalonians the day the Niphentaxians stumbled onto them," Hiromi stated. "Such is the twists and turns the _Te'a_ makes in our lives. Fortunately, it's been rectified and the Na'kalach were rendered impotent. But since the Na'kalach's allies seemed not to care for them, the Avalonians decided as a group to hurt them in return by taking the Tau'ri homeworld for themselves."

Silence.

"I . . . see," he then stated. "Do you lead these . . . Avalonians here?"

A shake of the head. "No. I am Director of the Earth Defence Force. A force of fifty ships built with the technology of the Ra'kalach by two Tau'ri warriors who were kidnapped as children by the Ipraedies, the green-skinned ones outspin of this world." As his face twisted in disgust - no doubt, this fellow had encountered those of that race before - she added, "Since another race, the Urusians - the horn-headed ones with the tapered ears on the tiger-striped world near the hearth world of the Pakalach - desired to ensure the Ipraedies did not take this world, my friends had to hurry to build the ships, but they were several months too late. Still, no lasting damage was done by the Urusians and the Pakalach make them go home when the Avalonians sought refuge - and a new world and society to call their own - here."

He took that in, and then he nodded. "I can see why you were so much on guard when we came through the Chappa'ai to seek a new host for my wife."

"The Lady Amaunet, you mean?"

He perked. "You know of her?"

"I know you are Apophis, the most powerful of the System Lords now that Ra has been terminally dealt with," she stated. "Kyech - the Lady K'ekhech - told me of your encounter with her on _Ch'eng-ch'ehek_ a year ago; you were seeking out a place to build a Jaffa training camp but never knew the Pakalach had claimed the world as their own and that many herds of _k'oni_ had been shifted to that world due to the rather large serpent population there. You - or one of your warriors; I know not which it was - destroyed a grove the Lady K'ekhech had taken a personal liking to, thus arousing her anger and making you confront a creature you couldn't shoot down." A smirk. "Much like dealing with even the most kind-hearted of the Yizibajohei, wouldn't you think?"

He turned VERY pale on hearing that word from her. "You are allied with THEM?"

A snort. "Of course not. There is no government on that world to ally with and my planet has enough problems on its own to deal with to be importing them from other worlds. Especially _that_ one!" Hiromi then smirked. "Still, Kyech-san spared your life, Apophis-san, so I am willing to show mercy to you in the same manner. And perhaps even help you help your mate be allowed to live her life again."

"How?" he asked, clearly surprised by her offer. "Our symbionts cannot survive in the body of one of the Ra'kalach. We need a Tau'ri body so she could truly live."

"There is one other way to do this."

"How?"

"_Tre'cha_. The soul-transfer." Hiromi then smiled. "It's considered quite important amongst the Avalonians. What I would offer you is the cloned body of one of the ladies that were in the chamber back on Earth when you came in. We would then take the Lady Amaunet's _mei'na_ - her soul - and move it into the new body. She would have to give up the ability to live in different bodies from that point on. But look at the advantages: Telepathy, empathy, an eight-_century_ lifespan . . . and no more questions about having to worry about the potential consequences of her and you bearing a harcesis between yourselves. It would be easy to augment your current body's DNA with the DNA strands that makes Avalonians the way they are. And you two can live the rest of your lives . . . and even more, start a dynasty that will help unite your people."

"You speak HERESY!"

Watching this from their vantage point, both Brian Gamblin and George Hammond were surprised at how pale Apophis had become on hearing Hiromi's suggestion. "I speak only of a means by which your society can survive and thrive," she said as she stood up. "I would - for your wife's sake most of all - think hard about such an offer, Lord Apophis. To ensure you do not anger anyone else, you will remain here for the time being. Perhaps your Jaffa might be more easily persuaded to this end."

With that, she made a motion with her hand. One of the MPs deactivated the barrier that kept Apophis trapped inside his cell to allow the reborn emperor to walk out while the other levelled his Peacemaker on him as she stepped clear. "General Hammond," she said, nodding to the American officer. "My quarters are this way. I would like to hear everything about your Project: Giza and your people's recent trip to Abydos. I would also like to get the chance to meet Jack O'Neill if possible."

"I can certainly arrange that, Director," Hammond stated . . .

* * *

U.S.S. _Arizona_, in geo-synchronous orbit over Phoenix, Arizona . . .

"So you took the precaution of having Avalonian volunteers from NOSC Phoenix help out in moving these Jaffa from the transporter room to the brig . . . and while they were in transit, the snakes inside their bodies tried to possess them?"

"Aye, sir," Commander Jennifer Turner, the chief medical officer of the American starship, said as she gazed apologetically at Captain Tom Kazanski. "They had just been stripped of their armour and clothes and were about to be dressed in the two-piece suits we got from the replicators when those _things_ came flying out of their pouches to try to penetrate the skins of the corpsmen involved in putting them into the brig." A sigh. "Fortunately, the regenerative enzymes in their bloodstreams attacked those things right away, forcing them out of their bodies. The corpsmen attacked only suffered a little nausea. Those things all expired within about ten minutes; they couldn't muster the strength to get back into their hosts' pouches and the corpsmen were too busy trying to make sure everything was alright with themselves."

The man still respectfully known in the American fighter pilot community even to this day as "Mister Iceman" sighed as he stared at the still figures in the recovery room of his ship's main sickbay. On seven of the beds, seven very young girls were now sleeping, dressed in plain white robes. "I take it that even if their original bodies expired, the souls of these aliens were saved . . . " He nodded to the sleeping girls.

"Yes, sir. Each corpsman had a friend helping out; the friends were the ones that did this. _Tre'cha_ was automatic in all the cases," Turner stated. "As you'll probably know, sir, all Avalonian hospital corpsmen were all pre-programmed with those skills even before they went off to basic and trades training at Great Lakes."

A nod. "What about the Jaffa?"

"All in suspended animation now," she reported. "Without those snakes - or whatever the devil those things're called! - they simply can't survive. Their immunity system is tied down to those pouches and the snakes inside them. We're considering doing DNA-recombination therapy to help them be converted into baseline human - or at least Terran-turned-Avalonian - but I don't feel confident enough to make that type of judgement call without input from higher authority, Tom."

He nodded; Jennifer Turner was his squadron flight surgeon when he commanded Fighter Squadron 14 (the Tophatters) aboard U.S.S. _Enterprise_ nearly a decade ago after the trauma of 9/11, so he was more than happy to get her aboard as his CMO when _Arizona_ was commissioned. "How are these kids adjusting?" he asked.

"They're still unconscious. According to some of the initial mind-scans done by Chief Bradley, they're at the emotional equivalent of early teen years on Earth, so the bodies were prepared at about fourteen years of age." Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Heidi Bradley was the current senior non-commissioned officer in _Arizona_'s Medical Department - a Master Chief Hospital Corpsman Ellen Wynthrop was due to be posted from the National Naval Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland as the senior NCO medic for the whole of the ship and her affiliated air and ground units in a month - and one of the first full-time U.S. Navy personnel to have undergone a "body swap" to become an Avalonian when it was offered. Given the added advantage of telepathy and empathy, she was a greater asset to Doctor Turner now than her many years of experience as an independent duty corpsman serving aboard ships and with various Marine Corps units would normally have given her. "Would you believe none of them have _names_?"

Kazanski gaped. "You're kidding me!"

A shake of the head. "No. From what Heidi was able to discover, they're not given their own indigenous names until they're considered 'mature' enough to take their first body for themselves," Turner explained. "Supposedly, it's a very important ceremony for their kind," she sarcastically added. "It allows them to be seen by their peers as having the right 'conquering spirit.' Or so the chief thinks."

A moan. "Good grief! Scalphunter was involved in THIS?"

Turner gaped at him. "Scalphunter? You mean Jack O'Neill? The Air Force spec ops officer that helped bail you and Ron out of Iraq after the first Gulf War?"

"Yeah, that's him," Kazanski affirmed with a nod. "Jack was asked to lead the mission to the planet Abydos around the time the Director's brother was dealing with the Tag Race. He just lost his kid thanks to a stupid accident with a gun; guess he didn't care if he came back from this trip or not!" A sigh. "Poor guy . . . "

"Is the Director going to talk to him?"

A snort. "She's be stupid NOT to talk to him!"

"Where . . .?"

Both of them tensed on hearing that weak voice, and then Turner tapped the control to lower the security field so she could walk over to one of the beds. Kazanski followed her; he was quick to spot the two scowling Marines with Peacemakers at port arms standing on the other side of the doorway. Smirking at the thoughtfulness of the members of the 72nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, the former F-14 Tomcat pilot moved to stand close to the bed where a blinking girl with long dark brown hair and hazel eyes was now starting to look around, the confusion and curiosity on her face quite plain for all to see. She was quick to sense Jennifer Turner walk over to the monitor unit beside her bed, and then she turned as she spotted the captain approach from the other direction. "Where am I . . .?" she asked in a weak yet clear voice. "What's happened to me?"

"Well, you tried to possess one of my volunteer corpsman when they were moving your hosts to the brig deck on the ship," the doctor stated. "Unfortunately, her regenerative enzymes decided you were a parasite and gave you a fatal dose of meson radiation poisoning to start breaking down the cells of your original body. Fortunately, though, another corpsman was quite willing to save your soul before it was lost, then it was dumped into the body you now have." A sigh. "The body you will now have to live with for the rest of your life. All approximately eight hundred years of it, of course."

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

And then . . .

"That's not possible . . . "

"Oh, it's quite possible," Turner stated as she gave the confused girl a smile. "Can you sense your original body inside the body you have right now?"

The girl blinked, and then she closed her eyes for a moment before a horrified gasp escaped her. "No . . . " she moaned. "Where's Teal'c? Where's Teal'c?"

"Who's Teal'c?" Kazanski asked.

She gazed at him, and then she noted his shoulder boards with the four gold stripes on them, topped with an inverted gold star. A glance to Turner revealed her rank of three stripes with a gold oak leaf emblazoned with a silver acorn in the middle. "Are you . . . the First Prime of this ship?" she asked the former pilot.

"I'm the commanding officer, if that's what you mean," Kazanski stated. "Which one was this girl taken out of?" he then asked the doctor.

Turner tapped controls to project a holographic image over the bed. "Is this the person you're talking about?" she asked as the image of a bald, dark-skinned and quite muscular man with a golden circular tattoo on his forehead appeared.

The girl looked, and then she nodded. "That is Teal'c."

"He's in suspended animation now," the doctor explained. "We won't allow him to die, but he couldn't survive without the symbiont - you, in other words - in him."

"You must give him another prim'ta."

Turner blinked. "Is that what you call yourselves at that stage of life?"

A nod. "Yes." A pause. "How is it the Tau'ri possess this power?"

"What power?" Kazanski asked.

"The power to shift my soul to this body?" the girl asked, a strong hint of both fear and awe appearing in her voice. "Only the Ra'kalach had that power." She then closed her eyes. "But they've been dead for over ten thousand years!"

"What did the Ra'kalach call themselves? Do you know?" Turner asked.

A shake of the head. "No. But we call them that because . . . it is said that they could see the very Power of the Gods Themselves in their souls."

Kazanski blinked. "The _Te'a_."

Turner nodded. "Well, if what you just told us is true, we can conclude that the 'Ra'kalach' - as you call them - were a race known as the Sagussans," she then said as she gazed on the young girl. "And yes, they've been gone for many millennia. But they created a great factory ship, as large as the largest city you can dream of, by which bioroids - artificially-created organic humanoids - could be born." She then reached over to tap the bridge of the girl's nose, which made her giggle. "You now have a bioroid body. In their terms, you are a 'Goa'uld-turned-Avalonian.'"

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

And then . . .

"I am . . . one of the Ra'kalach . . .?"

"In a way, yes," Turner said.

The girl blinked, and then a shudder ran through her as her eyes teared. "I've sinned . . .!" she moaned. "I've sinned . . . I've sinned . . . I've sinned . . .!"

Surprised by that cry of shame as the girl curled in on herself, Turner could only blink before she exchanged a surprised look with Kazanski . . .

* * *

H.M.C.S. _Haida_, two hours later . . .

"The child _wept_ when you revealed what happened to her?"

Jennifer Turner nodded. "Yes, Director. Even if she doesn't really understand what her purpose in life is - she did receive a lot of information passed through her from her parent before she was placed into the Jaffa warrior's body - she DOES look upon the Ra'kalach as beings that are, if not gods themselves, at least as close to divine as her worldview would permit. To actually BECOME one of them . . . "

"Is a heresy," George Hammond finished.

"Damn!" Brian Gamblin breathed out.

"So there goes that idea," Tom Kazanski stated. As he was the effective military second-in-command of the whole of the Earth Defence Force, he was allowed to sit to Hiromi's left, with _Haida_'s commanding officer to her right; everyone was currently in the director's private meeting room near her personal quarters on the Canadian starship. The visiting American Air Force general was seated beside _Arizona_'s commanding officer, with the American ship's chief doctor beside him. "If we try to offer this to Apophis' wife, she'll probably turn it down in an instant," he then added. "We're back to square one again. They'll want a Terran woman."

Hiromi hummed. "I wonder why. General Hammond, was there any effort made by Colonel O'Neill's people on the mission to Abydos to gather any sort of cultural or social information on the Goa'uld? What I know of them - even if it was of much greater strategic import given what just happened in Colorado - doesn't cover any aspects of their society, their history or any of the cultural mores."

A sigh. "Sadly, we weren't able to get anything of that nature, Director. The scientist that was assigned to the colonel's team, a Doctor Daniel Jackson, died in the mission saving the lives of the others of the team; if it wasn't for him, they wouldn't have been able to get back to Earth. Would the Lady K'ekhech know more?"

"Hopefully, she will. Unfortunately, when we spoke of the Goa'uld during our stay on Okusei, it was a brief conversation explaining their capabilities, their control over the Jaffa and their unwillingness to be civil with any other race, especially of the hominoid variety," the reborn emperor stated. "I don't want to push it all the way to a deep mind-probe of Lord Apophis; while it would give us all the answers we want to seek, it would be tantamount to mind-raping and that is a loathsome thing for an Avalonian to do, even to the representative of a potential enemy race."

"What about the Stargate itself?" Gamblin asked.

Hiromi perked. "What do you mean?"

"We can't leave the damned thing in a place where we can't keep a close eye on it, Director," _Haida_'s commanding officer stated. "Not that I'm knocking down all the efforts General Hammond and his people have made in keeping it secure, but given what it's capable of doing, it's a virtual hole in our defences and one we can't afford to keep open. Couldn't we shift it to a new base - say Civano Naval Space Station where _Arizona_ is going to have her ground base - and put our people around it?"

The Americans all blinked at the Canadian officer's suggestion. "Why not Canadian Forces Base Niagara, Captain?" Hammond asked.

"You're the people who found the thing, General," Gamblin stated, smiling.

Laughter around the table. "It would also give an added argument to the founding of the new SEAL team the Pentagon wants to give the Force, Hiromi," Kazanski added. "Much that I will never knock down the Air Force's Special Operations Forces given that it was Jack O'Neill who led the mission to Abydos - not to mention saving mine and Slider's lives back in Iraq - I would personally feel more comfortable with Navy SEALs, back by Force Recon Marines, keeping a eye on something like a Stargate."

"Is Lieutenant Ryback willing to come back to work full-time?" Hiromi asked.

Kazanski nodded. "I could persuade him."

"'Ryback?'" Hammond asked.

"Casey Ryback," _Arizona_'s commanding officer replied. "Lieutenant in the SEALs when he retired back in 1994. He was a chief petty officer involved in Operation: Nifty Package during the Panama invasion, but his team nearly got wiped out because of faulty intel and he lashed out as his CO because of it. Lost his security clearance, wound up being a cook on the _Missouri_ for her last deployment to 'Frisco . . . "

Hammond gaped. "Oh, I remember that! You mean he was the cook that took down that whole team practically by himself before they could offload the Tomahawks from that ship?" After Kazanski nodded, he then sat back in his chair before he remembered something else. "Wasn't he also the one who was involved in the matter with that hijacked train in 1995 that was involved with some other idiot Company thing . . .?"

The Iceman smirked. "Same man."

The Air Force officer nodded. "That was something."

"As we speak, General, a hundred and twenty Avalonians are undergoing full SEAL training to form a team of their own. Most likely, they will help form SEAL Team 72 and be placed under the Force's direction with Captain Kazanski as the administrative formation commander in his place as captain of _Arizona_," Hiromi stated. "Much to the total despair of _**all**_ the instructors at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado, everything they try to do to wash out the recruits hasn't budged any of them." As laughter filled the room - the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL course was quite notorious for its average eighty percent dropout rate among recruits - she added, "Captain Kazanski, would Colonel O'Neill be familiar with Lieutenant Ryback?"

"I would think so."

"Then it's time we got them involved in this," the reborn emperor stated . . .

* * *

Silver Creek, Minnesota (78 kilometres northeast of Duluth), that evening . . .

"Colonel O'Neill?"

"Who's asking?"

A chuckle. "Still collecting scalps, Hunter?"

The man now perched on the roof of his cottage some distance away from the main highway connecting Duluth to Thunder Bay in Ontario perked on hearing his old Air Force special operations call sign, and then he looked over. "Ice?"

"Who else it'd be?"

A delighted laugh, and then Jack O'Neill got up from his perch where he had been viewing the stars through a telescope, then came over to the ladder to climb down to the ground, where a smiling blond man in a Navy flight jacket with four stripes on his shoulder boards was standing. "Hey, Tom! What are you doing here?" he asked as he took the captain's hand in his own. "You on leave or something?"

A sigh. "Unfortunately, it's official business," Kazanski warned. "C'mon over; I got someone you'd want to meet." With that, they headed over to the front porch of the cottage, where a rather large and muscular man in relaxed clothing was waiting for them. "Jack, this here's Casey Ryback; he was the SEAL involved with that garbage with the Tomahawks from the _Missouri_ a few years back. Casey, this is Jack O'Neill. He's probably the best Air Force spec ops fighter you'll ever meet."

"Pleasure to meet you, Colonel," Ryback said as he held out his hand.

O'Neill shook it. "Pleased to meet you, Chief . . .!" He caught himself. "Oh, wait! You were a lieutenant before you finally retired before that business with that train, right?" At the Nova Scotia native's embarrassed nod, O'Neill waved them both inside. "Would you guys care for some beer or something soft to drink?"

"Non-alcoholic, Jack," Kazanski stated. "The lieutenant and I are on government time right now and unfortunately, you'll be that way quite soon, too."

"Why?"

"Something came through the Stargate this morning," Ryback reported.

O'Neill stopped, his eyes widening . . .

_**To be continued . . .**_


	2. Children of the Gods and the Sun

H.M.C.S. _Haida_, an hour later . . .

"So according to what your friends got from the Noukiites, this guy Apophis came from a different planet than Abydos, right?" Jack O'Neill asked.

Hiromi nodded. "A probe of one of the Jaffa indicated the planet of departure was called 'Chulak,' which is in a different solar system but the same general sector of the galaxy as Abydos." She tapped controls to draw up an image of the local cluster of the galaxy, with the various claimed territories of Earth's neighbouring powers all shown. "Chulak is about a hundred light years beyond the coreward frontier of the Imperial Dominion of Noukiios, but it's a world that's never interested the Noukiites as a whole," she said as she pointed out the planet in question. "Abydos is here." She indicated another star about a hundred light years closer to the galactic core than Chulak. "Again, it's not in a system that really interested the Noukiites or the Zephyrites when they were exploring this part of the galaxy several centuries ago, so I strongly doubt there was any detailed examination of either world. I doubt the normal inhabitants of either planet are aware of any other sentient species."

"So when we took out Ra, all that happened was that this Apophis character moved in and took over his territory, right?" O'Neill asked.

A nod. "Unfortunately so. At least, that's what Kyech-san told me. This was what Ra's territory was like before you eliminated him." She tapped controls to expand the hologram to show the whole galaxy, an area in framed gold then flashing which encompassed a large sector of space around the galactic core on all sides.

"My God!" Brian Gamblin breathed out. "If he was _that_ powerful . . .?"

"He may have had vast territories, but his actual physical forces were quite small and limited both by his technology and the reach of the Stargates."

Silence.

"What do you mean?" Tom Kazanski asked.

"I doubt the good colonel or his friends would have realised it at the time they dealt with Ra, but the Goa'uld are not a progressive race when it comes to technology and improving it," Hiromi stated. "Believe it or not, when I compared what records Tsukihana-kun and Ayami-chan got from the factory ship that created the fleet with what the Noukiites possessed on them, there's been next to no real advancement of technology among the Goa'uld in at least the last fifteen thousand years." She sat back in her chair. "One could conclude that they seem to care more for extending their life spans - Ra was alive at the time of the known contacts with Sagussa, as was Apophis - than trying to advance their technology to levels that would make them quite hard to deal with in this time period. The Noukiites, Colonel, were quite surprised when they saw how easy it had been to eliminate Ra, thus clearing the way for Apophis to take over."

"So why don't the Noukiites or any of the other big powers I've read about on the Internet go after the Goa'uld?" O'Neill asked. "You said there was a raid by Apophis on a Noukiite colony. That's _casus belli_; why didn't the Noukiites retaliate?"

"We did. Rather, _I_ did."

O'Neill gasped and Ryback blinked as Hiromi smiled while both Gamblin and Kazanski fought hard to hide their smirks. "Kyech-san."

A nod. "Hiromi."

O'Neill turned to see a crimson-haired woman with glittering chestnut eyes - and several noticeable bony ridges similar to what Klingons on _Star Trek_ possessed on her forehead, not to mention a pair of matching flower tattoos on her cheeks - move to sit down at the other end of the table after setting aside a long staff with a nasty battleaxe fitted to one end, that topped with a long jabbing spear. She was dressed in her typical gold-trimmed white-and-black two piece uniform. After taking a moment to fully take in the image of She Who Speaks to Dragons, O'Neill turned back to his host. "She's a Klingon," he stated as he pointed to Kyech.

"No, Jack. I am a Noukiite," Kyech said matter-of-factly.

Hiromi chuckled. "You will just have to get used to her, Colonel O'Neill." She then proceeded to do introductions for both Jack O'Neill and Casey Ryback to Seu-P'ye Yesu-Re Hechnich'-K'ekhech of Ait'uch Nehech. At the end of that, Hiromi waved to the American air force special operations officer. "Colonel O'Neill is the man who led the mission that finally rid the universe of Ra, Kyech-san."

Kyech's eyebrow arched as she gave the silver-haired, brown-eyed Terran warrior a closer look, and then she lightly smiled. "You saved the people of Abydos from Ra, Jack. That was very well done. Fortunately, Apophis hasn't reached out that far to claim the world as part of his domain. But it will come soon." She then smirked. "Or rather, it _might_ have come soon hadn't he come here to seek a new host for his mate."

"And the Earth Defence Force got in the way," Kazanski stated.

"Will they try to attack us anew?" Ryback asked.

The Noukiite hummed. "No, Casey. The fact that Apophis hasn't returned from his bride-seeking mission would have his advisors on Chulak most concerned. Especially since Teal'c - his First Prime; his military chief adjutant and bodyguard, in other words - also disappeared with him. They would be now caught in a moment of grave indecision. Either deploy out a follow-up force to learn what happened or risk the other System Lords learning of Apophis' disappearance. That would certainly attract his more powerful rivals, such as Ba'al and Cronus. They didn't like it when Apophis moved in so quickly after Ra's death to claim what he had possessed as his own."

"Besides, it's only been a little over fourteen hours since they tried to kidnap that airman in the security team at Cheyenne Mountain," Kazanski added.

A nod. "Yes, Tom. Their reaction time is quite slow compared to any of our races," Kyech stated. "What were you planning to do to them, Hiromi?"

"Offer an Avalonian body for the Lady Amaunet to take up in lieu of the body of a Terran," the reborn emperor stated. "Even if it would mean that she would eventually die in that body eight centuries from now, it would allow her to not worry about being forced to overwhelm another person's very soul to take control of a new host body."

A shake of the head. "I doubt she would like that."

"Why is that?" Gamblin asked. "When the Director proposed this to Lord Apophis, he called it a 'heresy.' The seven young Goa'uld whose embryos were in the bodies of the Jaffa guards that came with him to Colorado - once they were forced to be placed in Avalonian bodies - all felt as if they had committed a mortal sin."

"In their eyes, it IS a mortal sin to bind with the Ra'kalach, Brian."

Silence.

"Why is that?" Ryback asked.

"Because it was the Sagussans who taught the Goa'uld how to use the Chappa'ai, Casey," Kyech said as she gazed fondly at him. "The Stargate."

People around the table nodded. "And with that, the Goa'uld were able to expand from their homeworld to create quite the vast interstellar empire," Hiromi stated before she sipped her tea. "I can see why they would view the old Sagussans with such reverence. How would they react to Avalonians such as you or I, Kyech-san?"

"When I fought Apophis' people on _Ch'eng-ch'ehek_, they were simply shocked into disbelief that I could be BOTH Pakalach and Ra'kalach at the same time," Kyech stated. "But once they understand that there IS a daughter race of the Ra'kalach - in their language, Avalonians would be called 'Kal'ma Ra'kalach' or 'the Children of the Souls Touched by the Sun' - I believe the System Lords would consider leaving them alone. Or possibly - if they feel it right - actually help them in whatever way they can."

"So if the Goa'uld are convinced that the Kal'ma Ra'kalach are moving to take control of the Tau'ri homeworld, would they concede such a thing?" Hiromi asked.

"Possibly," Kyech conceded. "But then again, the Tau'ri - Terrans, in other words - provide the perfect host bodies for Goa'uld. I doubt they'll want to lose a potential source for host bodies since the option of using Avalonians would be quite an absolute one in their eyes. After all, once you become an Avalonian . . . "

"There's no other way to live the rest of their lives," Ryback finished.

A nod. "Exactly."

Hiromi sighed. "Well, we have quite the conundrum on our hands right now."

"Madame, is there some way to help the Jaffa that came with Apophis?" Kazanski asked. "We had to put them all into suspended animation because the Goa'uld young they were carrying all nearly killed themselves when they tried to possess some Avalonian hospital corpsmen recruits that were moving their hosts into the brig on _Arizona_."

Kyech hummed. "Teal'c was among them?"

"Hai," Hiromi answered.

"Put them through DNA recombinant therapy," the Dragonspeaker then stated. "I will help Teal'c and his friends recover from what they've endured. And the young ones as well." She then rose, a mirthless smile crossing her face. "But I wish to see Apophis first. I think directly threatening his mate's continued existence will make him see reason concerning any plans he might have for Earth or elsewhere."

"I'll take you down there, ma'am," Gamblin said as he stood up.

Both of them left the room, leaving Hiromi alone with the three American officers; Jennifer Turner had returned to _Arizona_ to monitor her guests while George Hammond had been allowed to return to Colorado so he could pass on what had been discovered up his own chain of command to the White House before coming back to co-ordinate the continued integration of Project: Giza into the Earth Defence Force. Once they were alone, Hiromi then sighed. "Colonel O'Neill, there's something bothering you," she stated as she gazed on the Air Force officer. "What is it?"

A sigh. "Well, actually . . . I'm not sure how to say this . . . "

"Oh, jeez, Hunter! What did you do?" Kazanski demanded.

"Well, I may have fibbed a little bit on my after-action report."

Both Kazanski and Ryback gaped at him. "In what matter?" Hiromi asked.

Another sigh. "Daniel Jackson is alive."

Silence.

"Oh, _Christ_, Hunter!" Kazanski spat out.

"Wait, Captain!" Hiromi cut him off. "Now, Colonel, why is it you elected not to inform anyone here that Jackson-hakase was still alive?"

O'Neill breathed out. "He saved my life."

More silence.

"I would see that as mitigating circumstances, Director," Ryback noted.

A nod. "As would I, Lieutenant. I would assume, Colonel, that Jackson-hakase is currently living on Abydos?" At O'Neill's nod, she then smiled. "Well, I think a little side visit to that planet to see how things are there might be called for."

"The Air Force brass will have kittens when they find out about this one, Jack!" Kazanski warned. "Hell, before we got things explained out, General Hammond was more than prepared to send a Mark Five SADM to Abydos!"

O'Neill jerked. "Gentlemen, that's enough. I'm sure we don't have to worry about sending nuclear bombs, antimatter devices or cobalt or bauximite concussion explosives through the Stargate to harm innocent civilians," Hiromi then stated to calm things down. "After all, the Stargate Treaty between the Imperial Dominion, the Imperial Houses, the Royal Kingdoms, the United Churches and the Confederation forbids such a thing. I believe it to be in Earth's best interests to conform to the Treaty limitations so that we could be better accepted by the 'older' powers around us in the long term."

"There's actually a treaty concerning the Stargate?" O'Neill asked.

"Hai. One of its key provisions is that no military force is allowed to use the Stargate system to attack another planet. Thus, each of the signatory powers place observers at all Stargates controlled by each of the signatory powers to ensure compliance." A sigh. "It will take a lot to convince the United Nations on that sort of matter, but I believe it will go far, especially with the Seifukusu. They _were_ very impressed with what we did to the Urusians and the Niphentaxians on Yaminokuni, but they still need a good push or two to allow us to take those colony worlds we need." She then caught herself. "Ah, but you need time to learn everything we're doing up here first, Colonel. Would you prefer to do it at your cabin or up aboard a ship?"

A sigh. "If you don't mind, Director, I'll switch over to _Arizona_," O'Neill stated. "'Sides, Ice and I have some catching up to do!"

"I'll buy the first round in the wardroom," Kazanski promised.

Laughter filled the room . . .

* * *

U.S.S. _Arizona_, early the next morning . . .

"Where am I . . .?"

"You're aboard the _Arizona_, Teal'c."

Dark eyes opened wide on hearing that familiar soft voice, and then the man lying on the bunk in the rather spacious yet barren room slowly turned to see the lone woman seated on the lone chair on the other side of the room. A glance to one end revealed an open doorway with an energy field covering it totally. _A prison cell of some sort_, the First Prime of Apophis was quick to conclude before he turned back to gaze on the living goddess now sharing his current space. "Lady K'ekhech . . . "

"How do you feel?" Kyech asked.

Teal'c blinked before sensing something quite _**off**_ about his body, and then he looked down his chest. His eyes then went VERY wide on seeing the washboard stomach of his abdominal muscles . . . and no X-shaped incision where the _prim'ta_ that had kept him alive and healthy for so long where the navel would be on a normal Tau'ri. After taking a moment to consider that, he then laid back on his bunk. "What has been done to me?" he then asked as he turned to stare wide-eyed at the Noukiite free warrior. "What of the prim'ta I bore, Lady? How could this have happened to me?"

"Your DNA - as well as the DNA of your friends - was rebuilt so that you no longer have to be dependent on a prim'ta to live," Kyech stated. "In effect, you have been transformed back from a Jaffa to a normal Terran; 'Tau'ri' in your language." She then smiled. "With some Avalonian - they are the Kal'ma Ra'kalach - add-ons."

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

And then . . .

Teal'c's voice was hushed as he said, "You are truly of the Ra'kalach . . .!"

"I am Kal'ma Ra'kalach in the form of a Pakalach, Teal'c," Kyech amended. "A daughter of the blood of Sagussa, mixed with the DNA of my original body from three millennia past during the Tri-Kingdoms age of Noukiios' history. In the terms used by the Kal'ma Ra'kalach, I am a Noukiite-turned-Avalonian." She then smiled at him. "As you and your friends are now Jaffa-turned-Avalonians. And the prim'ta you all bore - because they mistakenly attacked Avalonian nursing assistants who were called to this ship to help in disarming you - now are Goa'uld-turned-Avalonians."

He blinked. "The prim'ta live?"

"Yes."

"Why were they not destroyed?"

"Deep down, they are innocent children, Teal'c. The Avalonians will never allow a child of any race to come to harm if they can avoid it."

Considering that, Teal'c could only blink as his mind rolled over what had just been revealed to him, and then he sighed. "Where is Lord Apophis?"

"He is being held on _Arizona_'s sistership _Haida_," Kyech reported. "He was given the offer to allow the Lady Amaunet the chance to gain the body of a Kal'ma Ra'kalach so that he didn't have to kidnap a Tau'ri woman to be the new host for his wife by a friend of mine, the Most Venerable Lady Moroboshi Hiromi, the Director of the United Nations Earth Defence Force. That is a mixed Tau'ri and Kal'ma Ra'kalach fighting formation that is preparing to seal off Earth - the Tau'ri homeworld - from all alien incursions. And they are fully aware of the Chappa'ai and what it can allow people to do." A smile then crossed her face. "This is the chance both you and Master Bra'tac - not to mention others of your kind across the galaxy - have long dreamt of."

Teal'c blinked as his mind turned back a year . . .

* * *

_The planet _Ch'eng-ch'ehek_ (Chengsei) . . ._

_ "_**WHY CAN'T THIS CREATURE BE STOPPED?**_"_

_ Bra'tac turned to bow deep to the angry System Lord that was watching the mass slaughter of his troops in the glider bay of his flagship, now in orbit over the luscious green world at the innermost edge of Noukiite space when compared to the galaxy as a whole. "We have tried everything we can against her, Master," the former First Prime said before he turned to stare at the scene of utter destruction happening not metres away. "But she resists the direct blows of both the zat'nik'tel and the ma'tok staffs as if they were just the spring wind touching her skin!" He watched as several Jaffa levelled their staff weapons on the flame-haired Noukiite free warrior with the long battleaxe-like halberd, the bolts they fired slamming into her with no effect. "Scan her!" he ordered one of the younger warriors. "Surely . . . "_

_"Ra'kalach . . .!"_

_ Apophis blinked on hearing that choked cry of mortal fear from the sensor officer, and then he turned to gaze on the pale Jaffa. "What did you say . . .?"_

_"She is Ra'kalach, Master!" the younger warrior gasped. "Even if she looks as if she was one of the Pakalach, her blood carries fragments of the ra'naquadah within her!" He turned back to gaze on the view screen as he watched the Dragonspeaker effortlessly snap the neck of one of his brother warriors as she deflected several zat'nik'tel shots with the metal wing blades of her fighting weapon._

_ "Impossible!" Apophis snarled, shaking his head. "All of the Ra'kalach died out thousands of years ago! You are mistaking . . .!"_

_ "TEAL'C!"_

_He turned as Bra'tac screamed out on seeing a particularly handsome young Jaffa level his ma'tok on the Dragonspeaker's back. As the aged master watched in stunned horror, the Noukiite spun around just as the ma'tok discharged, sending a bolt of energy right at her chest. Like all others fired before, it had no effect._

_ "KILL HER, TEAL'C!" Apophis screamed._

_ Suddenly, those glowing eyes in the dark shadows of the Dragonspeaker's sockets suddenly fixed on the system lord through the security monitors. A shower of energy then seemed to cover her weapon for a moment before the long staff the battleaxe was attached to then shrunk into a normal handle. She then wound up and threw it right through the bulkheads separating the glider bay from the bridge. The whole ship shook violently as walls and support beams were sheared apart like tinfoil, the battleaxe finally stopping when it punched through the last bulkhead into the bridge to cleave apart the sensory station and the hapless Jaffa manning it. As Apophis then blinked in stunned shock on seeing that he had just been several centimetres from being literally chopped in half, footsteps then heralded the invading free warrior's approach._

_"STOP!" Bra'tac bellowed as he levelled his ma'tok and fired._

_ The bolts bounced off the Dragonspeaker's skin and clothes as she stepped onto the bridge, holding out her hand. Apophis gasped as the battleaxe suddenly flew through the air, smacking him hard on the face as it went, to land in her palm. As Apophis fell dazed to the deck, she ignored Bra'tac as he continued to pummel her with ma'tok fire, walking over to the control station near the Chappa'ai Apophis had fitted on his flagship to serve as his personal conveyance to anywhere in his domain. As he - soon joined by a wide-eyed Teal'c, who had followed the Dragonspeaker to the bridge through the holes the Cleaver of the Heavens had made - watched, she touched an interesting combination on the DHD. The event horizon immediately formed with its geyser of energy before several long, slender, furry creatures, all equal to the size of an average human man, lumbered through. Bra'tac stopped firing, his jaw dropping in confusion, as he watched these creatures gather around the Dragonspeaker, many rearing on their hind legs as they playfully licked her face. Others turned to lumber towards the two conscious Jaffa, their many unconscious brother and sister warriors, and the unconscious Goa'uld system lord they all served, eyes glittering with intelligence and a burning, aware anger that made both warriors brace themselves._

_"Not them."_

_That calm, almost toneless voice made Bra'tac and Teal'c stare in confusion at their Noukiite visitor as she gently rubbed the fur under the jaw of one of the animals that just came through the Chappa'ai. As she stared intently at them, her eyes lost that infernal glow and returned to their normal chestnut shade, the shadows vanishing from her sockets as a look of serene contentment crossed her face. She then gazed down at the animals around her. "You may feast on the others," she said._

_Happy growls and hisses escaped this pack of beasts as they all turned and began to approach the fallen Jaffa. Bra'tac and Teal'c watched in confusion as the animals moved to claw away the armour to get at the incision in their chests where each had a Goa'uld larvae buried within to keep them alive, healthy and loyal. As soon as those cuts were exposed, the animals' mouths opened to reveal long tongues and several rows of sharp teeth that looked strong enough to shatter bone. The tongues lanced into each downed Jaffa's pouch to snare the hapless serpents contained within, yanking them out to have then chewed and crunched apart before they were swallowed. Those Jaffa that still were alive, once they sensed what was happening to them, began to scream in pain as they felt their mental links to the symbionts they bore within them shattered, many of them passing out as their loss overwhelmed them. Watching this, both Bra'tac and Teal'c could only shudder as the Dragonspeaker's companions did their work._

_ "Not him either."_

_A questioning growl made both Jaffa spin around to see one of the animals looming over a now wide-eyed Apophis. Footsteps then made the system lord slowly turn as he found himself staring into the glowing eyes of a creature that should not be. "What are you . . .?" he hissed before recoiling as the animal looming over him snarled. "You cannot be Ra'kalach! They are all dead! __**DEAD! **_**HOW DARE YOU . . .?**_"_

_ His voice caught in his throat as the blade of her weapon loomed over his neck. "Be quiet," she said as her eyes began to glow. "You hurt my friends' trees. My friends are very angry at you right now, Apophis, so I will give them their favourite snack to eat in payment for your crimes against them." A faint smile crossed her face. "Pray they don't find prim'ta tasty." The smile then faded as the echo of something beyond human filled her voice. "**Because if they do, Her Majesty will order all of you to be hunted down, cleansed of your symbionts and given to them in a massive feast.**"_

_ As Apophis nearly choked on that threat, a voice then asked, "Why spare us?"_

_ Her eyes focused on Teal'c, and then she twirled her weapon to ram the end of the staff into Apophis' forehead, knocking him out. "Because your teacher sees the truth, young Jaffa," she said as she walked over to gaze into his eyes before she gazed on Bra'tac. "And your student is starting to learn the truth, honoured Master Warrior. That will not be snuffed out from your kind." She gazed once more on the unconscious Apophis before she turned back to them. "Leave our space. Make it very clear to all your kind that as long as you serve them, you are not welcome here. Do not return."_

_With that, she turned to walk toward the Chappa'ai._

_ "Wait!"_

_ She stopped, turning to gaze on Bra'tac. "Yes?"_

_ Surprised by her show of civility, he forced down a gulp. "What is your name?" the aged warrior asked. "All we know of you is . . . 'Dragonspeaker.'"_

_ She blinked, and then lightly smiled as her eyes returned to normal. "I am Kyech." With that, she bowed her head to them. "Tal'ma'te."_

_ Stunned by the friendly farewell she had given them, both men then bowed to her. "Suchaeuk-chit' ich'e suhik'hie," Bra'tac said for them both._

_ Kyech nodded, and then whistled her friends over to join her . . ._

* * *

The _Arizona_ . . .

"Others learned of your show of mercy to Master Bra'tac and myself. Not just those serving Apophis, but other System Lords as well," Teal'c explained. He had moved into a sitting position so he could gaze into Kyech's eyes, warrior to warrior. "And while none have dared defy the System Lords, that your attack on Apophis came within a hair's breadth of destroying him has many Goa'uld very fearful of the Pakalach." A shake of the head. "I do not think any of them would welcome the chance to gain the bodies or the powers of the Ra'kalach. It would take away their freedom . . . "

"To choose a stronger and better body if they encountered one," she finished.

A nod. "Indeed."

She sighed. "A pity." She then closed her eyes for a moment, and then she blinked as something came to her. "What of the Lady Anat?"

Teal'c's breath caught in his throat. "To speak of _her_ . . .!" He then caught himself, realising that for all her incredible power, the Dragonspeaker was clearly not fully up-to-date on Goa'uld internal politics, especially when it came to the direct relations between the various System Lords. "The Lady Anat has the Dust Sickness. She was banished to Dodeka by the Lady Bastet when her ailment was discovered."

Kyech's eyes narrowed. "Dodeka. That was Lord Zeus' old home base, wasn't it?"

A nod. "Until the Dusk Sickness struck the world and Lord Zeus was forced to abandon it." Teal'c closed his eyes. "So many of the elder Goa'uld were all lost to the Sickness. The Great Ladies Gaia and Danu, the Ladies Rhea and Hera . . . " A shake of the head. "It is said that if they had all lived, they would have ensured the System Lords would have remained together and kept the Children of the Gods united as one."

Her eyes closed. "I see, then. Then _that_ is how we will persuade the Lady Amaunet to take Hiromi's offer of the use of a body of a Kal'ma Ra'kalach."

He gaped at her, and then after considering it for a moment, he nodded. "It may work. When one is struck by the Dust Sickness, not even the sarcophagus can heal them. The Sickness destroys a prim'ta's ability to link and control the host body, trapping the prim'ta within the host and preventing it from escaping to a new host."

"How long before it would kill the Lady Anat?"

Teal'c closed his eyes. "The report of her banishment reached Chulak a fortnight ago. If she has a strong host body, she may still be alive."

Kyech nodded. "Then we must be off to Dodeka," she declared . . .

* * *

The _Haida_, a half-hour later . . .

"Why is this Anat woman so important, Kyech-san?"

"Because she is a Goa'uld Queen, Hiromi," Kyech replied. "The Lady Amaunet is another such queen. Unlike normal Goa'uld, the queens all possess the ability to procreate; normal Goa'uld like Apophis do not have that capability in their original bodies even if their hosts still retain the ability to father or mother children of their own. I do believe the prim'ta born by Teal'c and his friends were all the Lady Amaunet's own children." She gazed on Teal'c on saying that; he and his six brother and sister Jaffa from Apophis' Serpent Guard had been invited to the Canadian starship so they could meet with the reborn emperor and learn of what was now being planned. "Even more so, she is the direct genetic descendant of the Great Lady Gaia, who was the effective Empress of all the Goa'uld at the time of their first contact with Sagussa. That gives the Lady Anat considerable social influence among the Goa'uld even if she was for a time banished to a canopic jar by Ra for some odd slight; she was later found on Cerador by the Brahma Guard serving the Lady Kali, then given the chance to take a new host for herself. As to how she eventually came to ally herself with the Lady Bastet, I can't say; I do not pay too much attention to the goings-on with the Goa'uld unless they seek to impose themselves on the Imperial Dominion . . . "

"As Apophis did on _Ch'eng-ch'ehek_ last year," Hiromi finished for her friend, and then she leaned back in her chair. "Can you perhaps shed some light on this matter, Teal'c-san?" she then asked the stoic First Prime of Apophis. "As she is blessed by the Fates to give birth to the next generation of her race, the Lady Anat is truly a vital member of Goa'uld society. How would the other System Lords view her?"

"As a deadly danger, Moroboshi Hiromi," Teal'c stated. "As long as she is struck by the Dust Sickness, she is a danger to all, Goa'uld and Jaffa alike."

"But what if she's no longer a danger to either her own people or yours?" Casey Ryback then asked. The prospective commanding officer of SEAL Team 72, along with the commanding officers of _Arizona_ and _Haida_, not to mention George Hammond and Jack O'Neill, were also at the meeting. "What if she is gifted with a healthy body by the Daughters of Sagussa as the Director here proposed to do to Lady Amaunet? And it was done out of simple concern to keeping her - the descendant of Gaia, who lead their people when the Sagussans taught them how to use the Stargate - alive and healthy?"

"It could be accepted, Ryback of the Mi'kmaq," Mah'ac, one of the two female Serpent Guard warriors captured by the combined _Haida_/_Arizona_ security teams in Colorado Springs, then stated. "The Lady Anat was a blood enemy of Lord Ra, which bestows her respect in many quarters among the Children of the Gods and those who serve them." The dusky-skinned woman - she appeared to be descent from those who lived these days in the Indian subcontinent to the Terrans in the room - then shook her head. "But if she is shifted into the body of one of the Kal'ma Ra'kalach as you did to the prim'ta we once bore within our bodies, I do not think many will accept her. She cannot bear more prim'ta to allow Jaffa to remain alive and healthy . . . "

"But Jaffa can become of the blood of the Ra'kalach as the sisters of Moroboshi Hiromi just did for all of us, Mah'ac," the other female Serpent Guard, Nela, stated. "We can be free of all controls by the Goa'uld and be our own people." As the other Jaffa stared wide-eyed at her, the blonde, blue-eyed warrior found herself blushing. "Master Bra'tac and Teal'c are not the only ones would have come to find serving our so-called 'gods' more nauseating as time goes on." She sat back in her chair. "I would see our people be free at last. If becoming of the same blood as the Ra'kalach will make it happen, so be it. Perhaps THEN the Goa'uld might respect us more."

"Those are treasonous thoughts, Nela!" one of the male Jaffa, Fo'nak, hissed.

"But what can we do now, Fo'nak?" his best friend Ro'han asked. "We ARE now of the blood of the Ra'kalach! We are no longer Jaffa! Do you not see it on your own skin?" He pointed to his bare forehead in emphasis; when the regenerative enzymes had been injected into the Jaffa warriors, the markings on their heads symbolising their allegiance to Apophis had been removed as fully as their abdominal sacs had been.

"Don't you want to live free of any outside control?"

Eyes locked on Jack O'Neill. "Many of us have always dreamt of living free, O'Neill of Minnesota," Mah'ac stated with a sad smile. "But until now . . . "

"None of you ever believed that freedom would come," George Hammond said.

"Indeed," Teal'c stated, nodding.

"Lady K'ekhech, are Teal'c and all his friends now invulnerable to the Dust Sickness?" Brian Gamblin then asked. "Not to mention the young girls in _Arizona_'s Sick Bay who once lived in their bodies? Would they all be safe if they accompanied you and the Director to this Dodeka planet where the Lady Anat is current marooned?"

"With all due respect, Captain, I don't like the idea of bringing _kids_ into a potential combat zone," Ryback warned. "Besides, they're still feeling down because they think they've committed a terrible crime by becoming Avalonians."

"Don't they possess loyalties to their own mother?" Gamblin countered before he turned to Teal'c. "Teal'c, your prim'ta was the child of Lady Amaunet, wasn't she?"

"All of ours were," Teal'c stated. "Still, I fail to understand how using the young ones to persuade Lady Amaunet to become of the blood of the Ra'kalach will work."

"Because it is being done as a _**gift**_, Master Teal'c," Kyech stated. "I sensed it when I was close to Apophis over _Ch'eng-ch'ehek_ a year ago and aboard this ship last night when I confronted him in the detention cells. His use of the sarcophagus that was developed by Lord Telchak over the centuries and millennia of his life has been burning away at his soul, driving him away from any semblance of civilised behaviour. When he finally dies and faces the Ch'uoeuk at the Pool of Reincarnation, he will have little of his true soul left to be properly judged to either pass into Heaven or be reincarnated. As will many of his brother and sister Goa'uld, ESPECIALLY his mate!" She shook her head. "Nothing can live forever; the Lord of Heaven did NOT create the Universe with the intent to allow ANYTHING to be immortal. There is always a steep price one pays if one seeks THAT! THAT is why the Goa'uld are a dying race! And if you and your brothers and sisters are not careful, you will die with them."

"Aye, Kyech-san, you are right there," Hiromi breathed out. "Besides, Master Teal'c, consider this: If the Jaffa are freed of their dependency of bearing a prim'ta within their bodies - and the Goa'uld are convinced that allowing themselves to forego their current mode of existence for one that gives them a fixed time of life yet grants them ALL the ability to gain true immortality through their offspring - then both races will emerge from this situation victorious, able to look upon a brighter future without the need of one being dependant on the other anymore. You appear quite convinced of the necessity of such a thing for your kind, just like Mistress Nela here is likewise convinced. Surely if some of the more respected of the Goa'uld are likewise convinced to do the same, then others might follow them. Agreed?"

Eyes locked on the First Prime, and then he nodded. "It is possible, Moroboshi Hiromi. For my people, I would welcome it. As for the Goa'uld, I cannot say with any certainty. But if it can be done, then I say let it be done."

"So be it then," the reborn emperor then stated. "Now, Kyech-san, do you know the Stargate address for the planet Dodeka?" she then asked the Dragonspeaker.

"I do."

"Then let us prepare the young ones to meet their 'aunt.'"

"There's something we got to do first, though, Hiromi."

Eyes locked on O'Neill. "What's that, Hunter?" Tom Kazanski asked.

"We've GOT to give them _names_!" the Air Force colonel stated.

"Why?" Nela asked.

"Well, it's better than saying 'hey, you!' all the time!"

"Good point," Ryback noted . . .

* * *

_Arizona_, a half-hour later . . .

"Names?"

"Yes."

The seven girls who had once been simple prim'ta living within the bodies of seven of their leader's elite Serpent Guard all blinked. All of them were still in Sick Bay, though they had now been joined by their former hosts, they standing close to - and in the case of Mah'ac and Nela, physically comforting - them. Casey Ryback had taken a seat on an empty examination bed, calmly gazing at them. Watching the now-reactivated SEAL lieutenant, Teal'c had immediately sensed him to be a very dangerous warrior. Not a warrior possessing the metahuman powers of the Dragonspeaker - and possibly Moroboshi Hiromi as well - but a person who clearly could deal with any Jaffa even if they were armed with the best weapons possible. "Why?" Teal'c's charge then asked.

"Because in our eyes, it's rude not to give a sentient being a name by which she can be addressed as," Ryback calmly explained. "I know - thanks to the Lady K'ekhech - that you Goa'uld do things in a different way than we do, but unfortunately, Fate forced you all to grow up much faster than it was intended for you all. We need to make accommodations for that, thus we want to give you names you can use."

"What names could we have?" Nela's charge, a dark-skinned girl with curly black hair and deep brown eyes, then asked.

Ryback hummed. "Well, I could give you Mi'kmaq names."

"'Mi'kmaq?'" Mah'ac's charge, a silver-haired girl with olive skin and hazel eyes, parroted him, and then she asked, "Who are the Mi'kmaq?"

"My mother's people," Ryback answered, and then he took the dataPADD in his hand and tapped controls. "They lived here before the white man came to their lands," he explained as he turned the screen to show the map of the Atlantic provinces of Canada, the former lands of the Seven Districts marked out in gold. "They still live there, but in small enclaves, though many Avalonians have now come to live with them."

"The Kal'ma Ra'kalach. What we are now," Fo'nak's charge, a slender girl with red hair and green eyes, then said as she rubbed her arm, a still-pensive look on her face even if she seemed to better accept what she had become.

"That's right."

"What names would you give us?" Teal'c's charge asked.

With that, the SEAL officer stood and gazed intently at her for a moment before he reached up to gently touch her forehead. She shuddered as she felt her mind try to reach out into his - her psionic powers had been dulled by the Avalonian hospital corpsmen recruits after she had undergone _tre'cha_ to allow her mind to better adjust to its new body without outside contamination - and then she blinked as the images of several animals flashed through her mind. One of them, a sleek being with spotted fur, whiskers poking out of its face and black hair tufts leading from its pointed ears, made her feel suddenly warm inside. "Ah, you've found it," Ryback then said.

"What is it?" the girl asked.

He smiled. "That is _Apugsign_, the bobcat. A hunter."

She blinked, and then a light smile crossed her face. "Then I am Apugsign."

A nod. "That you are. Now, your turn," Ryback stated as he turned to the girl now being held in Mah'ac's arms. "Let's see what animal likes you . . . "

* * *

Civano Naval Space Station, four hours later . . .

When the Canadian Armed Forces elected to erect the ground base for H.M.C.S. _Haida_, they chose a single location in the south-central part of the Niagara peninsula of Ontario, within the limits of the cities of Welland and Niagara Falls. There, they were in the midst of erecting a tri-service base christened "Canadian Forces Base Niagara" even if it was split into three operating parts - Fleet Maintenance Facility _Merrittonia_ for the Navy ground support unit for _Haida_, 21 Space Wing for the aerospace elements assigned to the Canadian starship, and Simmonds Barracks to house the Canadian Guards' 1st Battalion and its attached battle group - administratively controlled by the three elemental commands (Maritime, Air and Land Forces respectively) with Brian Gamblin as overall formation commanding officer in his capacity as _Haida_'s captain.

The armed forces of the United States of America, given the many differences between themselves and their northern counterparts, elected on a diversified approach to house the units and formations supporting U.S.S. _Arizona_. The main ground dock and maintenance facility for the American starship - Civano Naval Space Station - was located in the southeast part of Tucson. The base was a sixteen square kilometre block of land formed in part by the unused section of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, bordered by East Irvington Road to the north, South Houghton Road to the east and East Valencia Road to the south; the spacedock would be located at the northeast end of the property close to the Civano subdivision of Arizona's second-largest city. The 72nd Carrier Air Wing was now based at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, over four hundred kilometres west of Tucson and ten kilometres from the Colorado River and the border with the Mexican state of Baja California; this would allow pilots and technicians of the Marine Corps' 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing to cross-train with the Navy personnel to give them hard exposure to the Avalonian technology being introduced across Earth. And the 72nd Marine Expeditionary Unit now shared facilities with the Army's Network Enterprise Technology Command, the 11th Signal Brigade, and the Intelligence Centre at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, 110 kilometres southwest of Civano and twenty-four kilometres north of the border with the Mexican state of Sonora. And when it was stood up in a year's time, SEAL Team 72 was planned to be based with its older sister SEAL Teams at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado near San Diego in California, though that was subject to change given the special capabilities of the Navy's elite commando forces.

Right now, Civano Naval Space Station was hosting something else.

"You KNEW we had a Stargate all along?"

"We _suspected_ there was a Stargate somewhere on this planet, General," Hakaru Ayami answered as she tapped controls on her dataPADD. "After all, the amount of Earth-descent humanoids living in known Goa'uld territory - as we all learned from the Noukiites - indicated right from the start that there had to have been some sort of forced colonisation from Earth centuries ago. The Goa'uld are addicted to using the Stargates even if their space fleets can move them about in mass numbers; it's a lot faster to move small amounts of troops through wormholes than transporting them in starships that take days and weeks to traverse from planet to planet." She tapped a control to feed power from the portable generators set up in this hardened dome at the centre of the base's physical territory, right beside the dried bed of a branch of the Pantano Wash. "Lucky thing we attuned the sensors of all our ships to sniff out any energy that a Stargate normally forms so that we could find it and keep an eye on it."

Hearing that, George Hammond could only shake his head. When the ships of the United Nations Earth Defence Force had been brought in from Den'sha Two a couple months after the turn of the New Year, he had approached the White House and suggested that the Stargate itself - plus all the research that had been collected on it to date - be revealed to Moroboshi Hiromi and her two bright young technical geniuses to see if Project: Giza could have been turned around after the failure at Abydos and made more useful. That suggestion had been shot down right then and there, which amazed the general now that the people in Washington seemed quite happy to let the Earth Defence Force take over everything from the United States Air Force when it came to the Stargate. _Then again, in the wake of what happened a couple months ago, the fears about interests contrary to that of the United States seem to have vanished when it comes to space affairs_, Hammond mused. _Maybe I should have brought this up privately with Director Moroboshi before going to the White House to speak to the President._ He paused before shaking his head. _That would've lead to a court-martial for sure. Dumb idea, George!_

"General Hammond!"

He turned as a very beautiful blonde, hazel-eyed woman walked up. She was in the uniform of a captain of the United States Air Force; like Jack O'Neill, she wasn't a pilot but bore the Space Operations Badge above her small "salad bowl" of medals. "Ah, Captain Carter, there you are!" he called back, return her salute with one of his own. "I trust you've been fully briefed on what's been happening with the Stargate?"

"Yes, sir, I have," Samantha Carter stated as she briefly glanced at the young genius from Kanagawa as she tapped away on her dataPADD to fully get all the systems in the dome linked to the Stargate. "It's a damn pity the Navy's stealing this from us; I thought I could do some things with it before they shut it down permanently."

Hammond chuckled; the young captain before him had been quite passionate about putting the Stargate to use ever since she first learned of it a few years before. Samantha Carter had been the primary designer of the dialling computer that had been used to activate the Stargate for the Abydos mission. "Well, let's not accuse the Navy of 'stealing' the Stargate, Captain. This is a joint-team effort between the services; Director Moroboshi will not have it any other way. Speaking of which, Miss Hakaru, where exactly IS the Director at this time?" he asked as he turned to gaze on Ayami.

"She's still busy with the young ones, Hammond-shōshō," Ayami replied as she moved to run full systems diagnostics on the dataPADD. "Ryback-taii insisted they all had to be transported to Lsetkuk to allow the women's council there to welcome them all as part of the tribe since they all took Mi'kmaq names for themselves."

Hammond blinked. "And where the devil is Lsetkuk?"

"Western Nova Scotia."

Before the general could scream out about people being transported to different countries when a mission was pending, Carter asked, "Ryback? You mean Casey Ryback?"

Ayami gazed on her. "You know him, Carter-taii?"

"I've heard of him, but I thought he had retired," the captain replied.

"Captain Kazanski has persuaded the lieutenant to return to active duty to take control of the planned SEAL team which will be attached to the Earth Defence Force. A two-step promotion to full commander would be in the works for him once SEAL 72 is on-line," Hammond explained before turning back to Ayami. "Now why is it the Director is insisting that time be wasted for a christening ceremony for those kids?"

"Because the young ones need to feel at home somewhere, Lord General."

Carter gasped and Hammond jerked on hearing that amused voice, and then both turned to see Moroboshi Hiromi walk up. She was in a black ninjutsu-ka's gi with a plain black belt wrapped around her waist. Beside her was Casey Ryback, now dressed in woodland Naval Working Dress with full fighting gear strapped on him. Behind them came Jack O'Neill - himself in Airman Battle Uniform, also with full fighting gear - and the seven Jaffa warriors who once served Apophis (in loaned NWDs with their ma'tok staffs in hand) and the seven Goa'uld-turned-Avalonian teenagers (also in loaned NWDs, though they were unarmed but had basic webbing on them with canteens and small pouches full of soft food if they got hungry). And in the rear was the Dragonspeaker herself, in her normal white-and-black uniform with the Cleaver of the Heavens in hand. On seeing her, Carter could only gape; this was the first time ever she had met an alien who actually _looked_ like an alien (the Jaffa and their young charges were all obviously quite human and she had dealt with Avalonians before).

"The system's fully ready to go, Onē-san," Ayami reported. "Which planet?"

"Abydos first," Hiromi ordered.

"Hai!"

With that, Ayami called up the dialling function, and then tapped the seven-glyph code for the planet in question. "Why Abydos?" Hammond asked.

"We're going to look in on Jackson-hakase to make sure he's alright and invite him to come join us," Hiromi answered matter-of-factly.

"I don't think he wants to be separated from his wife," O'Neill stated as Hammond's jaw dropped in shock on hearing that the "dead" scientist was ALIVE!

"Well, if he desires, we'll ask her to come visit as well."

"Wait! Doctor Jackson is ALIVE?"

That was Samantha Carter. "Yeah, he's alive. Who are you?" O'Neill asked.

She braced herself, saluting him, which he casually returned. "Captain Samantha Carter, Colonel. I was assigned to the Pentagon as staff to Project: Giza."

O'Neill perked on recalling the name. "Oh, you're the one who made the original dialling computer for the Stargate when we went to Abydos! Good work, Captain."

She flushed with pride. "Thank you, sir."

"Destination programmed in. The Stargate is activating," Ayami announced.

People turned to see the inner ring of the ancient device start to spin. "Colonel O'Neill, would you care to explain to me why you LIED about Doctor Jackson?" Hammond demanded as he glared intently at O'Neill. "If he is still alive . . .!"

"He's married to a local woman and felt he had no choice but to remain behind, sir," O'Neill stated as the first chevron locked into place; Hiromi had assured him that she would override any attempts at disciplining the colonel from the senior Air Force brass because of his small fib concerning Daniel Jackson. "Atop that, he saved my life when we killed Ra. He felt he had nothing left on Earth to go back to and he didn't want to bring Sha're - his wife - here to Earth, which would end up separating her from her people." A sigh as Chevron Two locked in. "He asked us to do that."

Hammond blinked, and then he sighed. "Colonel, much that I understand why you would do something like that," he stated as the third chevron locked in. " . . . but did you consider what might have happened if Senior Airman Wetterings was kidnapped by Apophis and I was ordered to send a Mark Five SADM through the Stargate?"

O'Neill nodded as the fourth chevron locked in place. "Sir, I realise that now, but last year, after Ra was killed, we all felt - from General West on down to myself, Kawalsky and Ferretti - the matter was fully resolved."

"It is an honour-debt situation, General. I consider the matter quite resolved and I'll argue same with your superiors if they raise an objection to this," Hiromi said as Chevron Five locked into place, and then she turned to the girl now holding Teal'c's hand. "Now, Lady Apugsign, how'd you like to help us make contact with Jackson-hakase on Abydos?" she asked as she gave the young girl a smile.

"How will I do that?" Apugsign - O'Neill nicknamed her "Bobbi" from "bobcat;" much to the former _prim'ta_'s surprise, she liked getting a nickname - then asked.

"Well, if the good Colonel O'Neill will carry you over to the Stargate after the wormhole forms, we'll send a small message to Jackson-hakase," Hiromi said as Chevron Six then locked into place. "Are you sure _this_ is the best way to communicate with him?" she then asked as she pulled a box of Kleenex out from her own subspace pocket.

O'Neill smiled as he knelt down to pick Apugsign up into his arms just as the seventh chevron locked in place and the event horizon appeared. Before he could carry the young girl off, a hand landed on his shoulder. He paused before gazing at Teal'c, who had a stern look on his face. "You will NOT bring her to harm," the Jaffa said.

The Air Force special operations officer smiled. "C'mon down with us then."

Teal'c blinked, and then he contently nodded as he followed Hiromi and O'Neill out of the control chamber into the centre of the dome. Like in Deer Trail in Colorado - the former Titan I ICBM site was the place the Stargate was based at before and during the Abydos mission - and later in Cheyenne Mountain, a boarding ramp had been constructed up to the bottom of the inner ring of the Stargate so people could casually walk through without accidents. As they came up to the wall of water-like energy now filling the Stargate, Hiromi then handed the box to O'Neill, who held it up for Apugsign to take. "Okay, Bobbi! I want you to toss the box through the gate."

She nodded, doing that with a flick of her hand. Once that was done, Ayami tapped controls to cut the link between Earth and Abydos. "What was that?" Teal'c asked as the event horizon faded, revealling the north wall of the dome.

"A box of Kleenex," O'Neill stated.

"What is 'Kleenex?'" Apugsign wondered.

"Well, Kleenex is a type of tissue that we use to blow our noses whenever we have allergies or a cold," O'Neill explained as they stepped down from the Stargate. "Or any other type of respiratory sicknesses. Jackson has allergies, so he was constantly sneezing and blowing his nose on Abydos because of all the dust there."

Teal'c looked shocked. "You mean this Daniel Jackson went on your mission to destroy Lord Ra . . . and he was ILL?" he demanded.

"Well, it wasn't debilitating; he could still do his work," O'Neill noted.

The Jaffa considered that, and then he nodded. "You Tau'ri are dedicated."

"There are many forms of dedication, Master Teal'c," Hiromi advised . . .

. . . just as a slight shudder ran through the dome as the chevron lights on the Stargate all lit up and the inner ring began to spin. "Incoming connection signal, My Emperor!" Ayumi called out over the intercom. "Calculating source point now."

"You can tell where it's coming from?" Samantha Carter demanded.

"Sure. The Sagussans figured out the whole system twenty thousand years ago."

Everyone gaped at the young genius from Kanagawa as the Stargate moved to lock in position. "Where is this coming from, Bunjaku-dono?" Hiromi called out.

"Abydos, My Emperor!"

"That was quick," O'Neill noted.

Soon enough, the last chevron locked into place and the event horizon formed. As soon as the wormhole stabilized itself, everyone tensed. In the control room, Ayami reached over to flick on the dome's internal defences, composed of a dozen pintle-mounted pulse-particle guns that were even more vicious than a Lawgiver at full power. Teal'c also had powered up his ma'tok staff, levelling it on the Stargate as his fellow Serpent Guards - after they had left their charges in the company of Samantha Carter, Casey Ryback and Kyech - ran into the main room to level their weapons on target.

Silence then fell . . .

. . . which was broken when someone walked through the event horizon.

"WAIT!" O'Neill barked out.

People froze, and then Hiromi smiled. "Daniel Jackson, I presume."

The man in the ragged desert clothing blinked before looking up, and then his blue eyes locked in on the silver-haired man in the crowd awaiting him. "Jack?"

"Hey, Daniel! Welcome back to Earth," O'Neill said, grinning.

The bespectacled, brown-haired archaeologist and linguist blinked as he shook the colonel's hand, and then he sighed before looking around. "Wait a minute . . . " he breathed out. "This isn't the silo at Deer Trail! Where are we?" he demanded as he looked on O'Neill, and then turned to stare quizzically at Teal'c and Apugsign, then at Hiromi.

"We're at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, just outside Tucson," the colonel replied as he moved to hand the young Goa'uld over to Teal'c. "The whole east side of the base has been transformed into what our Navy friends now call 'Civano Naval Space Station.' They're going to be the main agency in running the Stargate now."

Jackson blinked. "'Naval Space Station?'"

"Yeah, a lot's changed since we went to Abydos. Oh!" O'Neill then waved to Hiromi. "This is Hiromi Moroboshi. She's the director of the United Nations Earth Defence Force. You probably remember hearing about that alien contact in Japan just before we headed out to Abydos." A nod to Hiromi. "Her brother was involved in that."

"Really?" Jackson then bowed to the reborn emperor. "A pleasure."

Hiromi returned the bow. "The pleasure is mine, Jackson-hakase." As with all other facilities created by the Earth Defence Force, a universal translator field was active in the dome. "I trust all is well with your family and friends on Abydos."

"Yes, they are." To O'Neill. "I was actually in the Gate Room at the pyramid; that's why I was willing to come here when you sent the Kleenex through. Thanks."

"There haven't been any raids by the Goa'uld since we were there, have there?" O'Neill then asked as all of Teal'c's friends relaxed themselves, setting the butt ends of their staff weapons on the floor of the dome as they calmly began to wait.

"No; I've had the gate room constantly guarded ever since you left," Daniel said . . . and then he blinked as a hand reached up and pulled his glasses off. "Hey!"

"What is this device?" Apugsign - who had been let down to the ramp so she could stand on her own - asked as she gazed on it.

"Well, those are glasses. Corrective devices to help those with faulty eyesight see better," Jackson explained. "Could I have those back, please?"

The young former prim'ta moved to look through the lenses . . .

. . . and then cried out on seeing a deformed figure. "MONSTER!"

As Apugsign dropped the glasses, Teal'c roared, bringing his ma'tok up . . .

. . . before a hand snared the device and yanked it out of his hands just as another hand snared Jackson's glasses before they could break on the floor.

"Calm down, Teal'c. She does not understand the purpose of spectacles."

As Hiromi handed Jackson back his glasses, Teal'c turned to see Kyech standing there, calm as could be as she handed him back the ma'tok. By then, Jackson had recovered his eyesight, and then he turned to gaze wide-eyed on the flame-haired alien woman with the rather BIG halberd in hand. Focusing on the bony ridges on her forehead and the odd tattoos under her eyes - and then seeing the han'gŭl-like glyphs on her tunic front - he then blinked before turning back to O'Neill. "Who is she?"

"She's a Noukiite," the colonel replied before a smirk then crossed his face. "Though I still think she's a Klingon," he added in a whisper.

"We address them as 'Pakalach,' the Ringed Souls," Nela stated. "They believe they are to be reborn to new lives once they are judged by their King of Kings at the end of each of their old lives. Unless they have earned the right to enter Heaven."

"Oh, they're reincarnationists!" Jackson said, nodding in understanding, and then he perked as he stared at her. "You're a Jaffa, aren't you?"

"I was a Jaffa, Daniel Jackson," the female Serpent Guard stated. "Now I am of the Kal'ma Ra'kalach, as are my brothers and sisters." She then perked as the girl who had once been the prim'ta she had borne within her body, Mui'n, came up to hug her from one side. She gazed down on the younger girl, and then smiled as she wrapped an arm around Mui'n's shoulder. "And the Lady Mui'n here was once the prim'ta I bore within my body until the Kal'ma Ra'kalach allowed her to become one of them."

Jackson nodded. "So she is - pardon me, WAS - a Goa'uld?"

"Yes."

The archaeologist hummed. "'Ra'kalach' . . . that means 'souls touched by the Sun.'" He then perked. "Ah, I remember now! This was the first ever contact with another spacefaring race by the Goa'uld. There was a record of the meeting with them in the temple in Ra's old throne room. That happened well over fifteen thousand years ago! They taught the Goa'uld how to make use of the Stargates!" He turned back to O'Neill. "'Kal'ma Ra'kalach' means 'children of the souls touched by the Sun.' Same race?"

"In most parts, yes," Hiromi answered. "You have missed out on quite a lot in the last year or so, Jackson-hakase. How long can you stay away from Abydos?"

"Well, if we can get the Stargate opened again, I can invite you all to come over to Abydos so you can see everyone there, Director," Jackson stated as he gave her a knowing look. "But I assume you called me back for other reasons."

"Other than assuring the good colonel here that you are well and those on Abydos are also well, we are actually planning to proceed to another planet called Dodeka to rescue a Goa'uld queen named Anat, who never really got along with the late Lord Ra," Hiromi explained. "She has been struck by a debilitating and fatal sickness, one of which will force her to become an Avalonian - as the Kal'ma Ra'kalach call themselves as a race - if she doesn't wish to die. And if Master Teal'c is quite correct, we will have to move quickly or else we will not be able to save her."

Jackson blinked, and then he nodded. "Well, I'll be glad to help."

"You are worried for your wife."

He jolted, and then he turned to stare at Kyech. "How . . .?"

"She can sense your heart, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c explained. "As all the Ra'kalach once did and as the Kal'ma Ra'kalach can do now. If she touches you, she can sense your very thoughts and dreams. She is about to grant you a favour. Take it."

Jackson gazed on the tall and muscular warrior, and then he relaxed himself as he gazed on the Dragonspeaker. "Yes, I am very worried for Sha're and the others."

Kyech nodded. "Ayami!"

"What is it, Kyech-san?" Ayami called from the control room.

"Open the Stargate to _Teng-ch'ehek_, please."

"Hai!"

"What is 'the Planetary Province of Teng?'" O'Neill asked.

"Our closest physical neighbours in the galaxy outside Neptune, Lord Colonel. It's a planet in the Alpha Centauri star system, the fourth world orbiting Alpha Centauri A," Hiromi explained as the Stargate's inner ring began to spin again. "No doubt, Kyech-san will go summon Kuohu-san and Kyekkyek-san - and hopefully Ryep'-san and Tai-san if they're both available - to go guard Abydos while we're off to Dodeka to rescue Lady Anat."

"There are others like the Lady K'ekhech?" Teal'c asked.

"Well, not physically blessed by a ch'uokyek as Kyech-san is, Master Teal'c, but believe me: Kuohu-san is addressed as 'the Black-Haired Bandit Slayer' for a reason."

The others all gazed on the reborn emperor . . .

_**To be continued . . .**_


End file.
